Nation Briefs

A physician, his wife and their 5-year-old daughter died after fumes from the man's apparent suicide overcame everyone in the house, police said. The couple's two other young daughters and the housekeeper were hospitalized in critical condition.

Police were called to the family's home in affluent Old Brookville on Saturday when they were notified that the wife, Rhonda Leopold, had failed to show up for an appointment.

Arriving on the scene, they smelled gas fumes and found Leopold's 44-year-old husband, Richard Leopold, dead in the front seat of his Cadillac in the garage and his wife on the floor just inside a doorway leading to the home. The car key was in the on position but the Cadillac had run out of gas.

WASHINGTON, D.C.U.S., Jordan trade pact awaits congressional approval

President Clinton sent to Congress on Saturday a groundbreaking agreement that would remove all trade barriers between the United States and Jordan. The pact will be considered after Clinton leaves office. It faces an uncertain fate in Congress, where Democrats endorse the agreement but Republicans are withholding judgment.

Clinton said the pact is important because of what he called Jordan's pivotal role in the Middle East peace process. He said it sends a strong message to Jordan and its neighbors about "the economic benefits of peace."

NEW YORK cityRiver search under way for possible plane crash

Rescue crews continued to search for a small aircraft Saturday, a day after two women reported seeing the plane crash into the Hudson River.

Police searched what would be a 20-block area of the river and sent in a scuba team aided by sonar equipment that could identify the presence of any submerged aircraft. But on Saturday, with air-sea rescue squads still at work, there was no sign of the single-engine, high-wing aircraft with a blue stripe down one side that the witnesses described.

Area airports had received no report of any missing or lost aircraft, nor did authorities receive any "May-Day" transmission.

New JerseyFerry that ran aground due back in service

A commuter ferry that ran aground on a sandbar, stranding 257 passengers for five hours, was scheduled to run on a limited schedule on Monday.

New York Fast Ferry's vessel "The Finest" will make two morning and two afternoon runs between New York City and northern New Jersey, the company said Saturday.

The U.S. Coast Guard found no signs of damage from Thursday's incident in Sandy Hook Bay, but is investigating the cause of the incident.

The company is considering ways to compensate passengers who were stuck on board.